“You’ll be all right, especially in that jacket. It counterbalances my dubious bandage. You can hang back off the pavement altogether if you want, and leave me and Veronica to do what we do naturally.”

Harold says hitchhiking is something that fits particularly well with what he calls his skill set. He can’t remember what happened yesterday, or even five minutes ago, unless he crayons a symbol of it in his notepad, but he seems capable of feats that give me anxiety.

“Remind me about your hitchhiking skills?”

He loves this question. “The first plus is that I’m very good at appearing non-threatening.”

“I guess knitting helps?”

“I can’t knit and hitchhike at the same time!”

Harold has rules about the way he does every single thing. I imagined that a person might easily knit and occasionally stick out a thumb on the roadside, but now I realize that for Harold, this would be impossible. Both things cannot be done at once, since neither hitchhiking nor knitting is as simple as I might have imagined.

“In Jamaica you put your thumb like this…” He makes an aggressive lunge, jabbing his thumb groundward, body craned forward. “You’re telling the driver, essentially, hey—you have the wherewithal to own wheels and I do not, therefore you’re obliged to give me a ride. You wouldn’t do that here.”

“No, indeed. Someone might run you over. Or bash your head in.”

He regards me as one might a charming three-year-old. “Perhaps it’s not that rough. But you’re absolutely right, it wouldn’t be culturally appropriate to hitchhike like that here. Here you have to be much more inquiring. You hold yourself like this…”

“I guess I can see how you can’t simultaneously knit.”

“Exactly.” His entire body has become a most polite question.

“You have your thumb and body held high away from the traffic, yet are hesitantly asking if, perhaps, there might be some chance of assistance?”

“That’s it!”

In his eyes, I am an astute three-year-old. “I still don’t feel I can do it.”

“Do you not? Really?”

“If your first required skill is that you appear non-threatening, I am at a disadvantage. I like to present myself at my full height. I like to travel armed. The thought of appearing weak…”

“Remember the driver is in control. They are driving the car and this helps them.”

“But the other side of that is—you give away your power. How do you keep out of danger?”